MLB All-Star Game draws record-low TV audience (2024)

A record-low number of viewers tuned into Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game, according to data announced by FOX. The Midsummer Classic drew 7.507 million viewers, a 10 percent decline from 2021.

The downward trend in attention to baseball's All-Star Game has drastically reduced the gap between the MLB and other leagues in terms of All-Star game appeal. While baseball's contest still outpaces the NFL's Pro Bowl, the NBA's All-Star Game and the NHL's All-Star Game, the 2021 baseball rendition marked the first time the game ever drew an audience smaller than 8 million viewers.

On Monday night, the Home Run Derby drew 6.8 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.

According to Sports Media Watch, the MLB All-Star Game regularly saw broadcast numbers top 20 million in the 1990s, but now hasn't cracked 12 million since 2010.

However, compared to the rest of television, the MLB All-Star Game was a strong success, drawing television's largest audience since Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)

What's behind the All-Star Game declines?

Richard Deitsch, media writer: Look, the reality of the MLB All-Star Game is that it’s a declining product as a linear viewership property. That’s not going to change. The game hasn’t topped 10 million viewers since 2015 and is down from 14.6 million viewers in 2009. Why? You can figure this one out too.

Interleague play is no longer a novelty and we live in a media universe of endless choices. You can argue the alphabet soup of entities that air national games does not help the sport grow nationally because of how much it costs to get everything. In many ways, the Home Run Derby is the better television property given it beats the ASG in younger demographics.

Now, is the ASG still an excellent property to own? Absolutely. It was the most-watched event on TV on Tuesday night by a ton and remains the most-watched of the All-Star Games (the Pro Bowl drew 6.69 million on ABC/ESPN this year). I don't think we are guaranteed record-lows every year but I don't think we'll see even the 2009 viewership number again.

Are drastic changes needed to turn this trend around?

Deitsch: I don’t see a magic bullet. MLB has tried a ton of things over the last decade and viewership direction is more down than up. What I would focus on is making the broadcast as viewer-friendly as possible. FOX should focus on what they focused on last night — providing fans with as much immersive access as possible, from umpire cams to mic-ing players all over the field.

If I were MLB, I would do everything possible to get star players to compete in the Home Run Derby and perhaps add additional skills competition (fastest from second to home?). I think growth remains in the Home Run Derby as a television property.